Cheap race car material? Suggestions please!

ford puma or a fiesta etec s with puma engine

Another vote for the Puma here,123bhp in a light car with great handling or how about a stripped out 850T5,two on the bay for less than £200 right now.

Racecar you say?

So you'll be wanting RWD and 50/50 weight dustribution in a cheap package?

Possibly a straight six for oodles of power?

You my friend need the Ultimate Driving Machine, a BMW 3 series.

Plenty of cheap E36s out there.

Racing is all about the category rules. What kind of racing and what class are you trying to run in?
For example, I have attempted to run an ST185 Celica GT-Four in khanacross and Rallysprints (on dirt).



It was cheap to buy, probably the cheapest car around in terms power/dollar, but it's proven to be a very expensive car to run, due to breaking suspension bits, a gearbox, an axle, etc!
It also has the problem of being the slowest car in the fastest category (4wd turbo). If I had a naturally aspirated 2 wheel drive car, even though it would be slower it would be more competitive, due to being in a slower category. From this point of view, one of the most competitive cars that people are running (in my car club) is the Hyundai Excel! They can be bought for beer money, and are nearly unbreakable. If you do break it, the parts are dirt cheap, or you can just buy another car. Because they're light, they go well and they're not hard on their tyres, brakes or suspension. Some of the very experienced drivers have outrun my Celica in one of these!



For a RWD option, the naturally aspirated SR20 S13 Silvias are also very popular.



Although durability is slightly less important on tarmac, I think the same would still apply. Obviously the price and availability of cars will be different depending on your local market, but I would strongly encourage thinking more about the class category and being competitive in the class, rather than just outright fast.

Impreza

As said, the type of racing you wish to do will have quite a big impact but perhaps some form of Saab Turbo maybe a contender?

While perhaps not the last word in handling (although can be made pretty decent) the engines will give you more than enough oomph on a budget

(Definitely not writing this because I'm struggling to sell mine for even a grand.... )

Ropey ones are cheap, good original ones are picking up as a result of recent magazine coverage on how scarce good, original examples are becoming (I own possibly the best original example out there), but if you're going to race it then you're not that bothered about originality or concours stuff! So a good shout.

306 rallye/gti6 if you go down the hatch route. Capable little car out of the box and supercharger kits available if you out grow it.

I used a Saxo VTS for a base race car. Few mods and weight loss and it was very good at brands Hatch!